Second, the Brits are seriously threatening one of the most serious breaches of international law – violating the territory of a foreign embassy? That puts British diplomats, and embassies, at serious risk in the future. For example, if the Brits actually think that it’s okay for them to raid the Ecuadorian embassy, then it’s also okay for the Americans to raid British embassies in the future the next time we want to carry out one of those beloved extraordinary renditions.

“Under British law we can give them a weeks’ notice before entering the premises and the embassy will no longer have diplomatic protection,” a Foreign Office spokesman said. “But that decision has not yet been taken. We are not going to do this overnight. We want to stress that we want a diplomatically agreeable solution.”

If that’s the case under British law, then I wouldn’t want to be a British diplomat – because it’s now fair game on Brits worldwide if their government truly takes international law this lightly.

John AravosisFollow me on Twitter: @aravosis | @americablog | @americabloggay | Facebook | Instagram | Google+ | LinkedIn. John Aravosis is the Executive Editor of AMERICAblog, which he founded in 2004. He has a joint law degree (JD) and masters in Foreign Service from Georgetown; and has worked in the US Senate, World Bank, Children's Defense Fund, the United Nations Development Programme, and as a stringer for the Economist. He is a frequent TV pundit, having appeared on the O'Reilly Factor, Hardball, World News Tonight, Nightline, AM Joy & Reliable Sources, among others. John lives in Washington, DC. John's article archive.

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"Family values" conservative GOP US Senate candidate Roy Moore of Alabama is in trouble. He stands accused of inappropriate sexual contact with four teenage girls, aged 14 to 18, when he was a 30-something lawyer.